Of Pacchiarotto, and how he Worked in Distemper
Pacchiarotto rehearses social reform by arguing with figures he has painted, but his speech to Siena's reform club provokes an attack, and he hides for two days beside a corpse. Sheltered by monks, he resolves to return to painting; the narrator then mocks his own critics as May Day chimney sweeps and defends his verse.
By Robert Browning · Genre: Satirical Poetry, Narrative Poetry, Metapoetry · 6,790 words
First lines
I
Query: was ever a quainter / Crotchet than this of the painter / Giacomo Pacchiarotto / Who took "Reform" for his motto?
Genres
- Satirical Poetry — Comic rhymes ridicule Pacchiarotto's confidence in converting others and the critics portrayed as noisy chimney sweeps.
- Narrative Poetry — Numbered verse sections follow the painter from debates with painted figures through a public confrontation, flight, concealment and return to painting.
- Metapoetry — The narrator answers complaints about his verse and disputes his critics' demands for grammatical correctness and clarity.
Tags
painting · social reform · Siena · literary critics · satire · comic rhyme
What this Textopian page supports
Of Pacchiarotto, and how he Worked in Distemper is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Browning, dated Date unknown.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Robert Browning
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Satirical Poetry, Narrative Poetry, Metapoetry
- Length: 6,790 words
- Structure: 1 section, 59 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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